Cat's Claw and Arrowroot
by TwinSouled
Summary: The Mad King's War three years past, and Gallia wars again with Begnion, the Greil Mercenaries at their side. But when Beorc and Laguz march together...even the most unexpected things can happen. In war, your life is in your ally's claws. Shinon/Lyre
1. Prologue: Kitten Smitten

**A/N:** And so here it is, my first official fanfiction. Fire Emblem doesn't get enough love, I think…But what I really don't understand is why all the writers that focus on, or at least include, Shinon insist on making my favorite character gay. Got nothing against yaoi except that it's not my thing, but I think the awesome sniper of Greil Mercenaries deserves at least one hetero pairing. Plus the fact he'd shoot me in the eye if I even considered pairing him with Gatrie or (*shudder*) Rolf.

Fire Emblem and all characters belong to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. I own nothing except this particular chunk of text.

Please read and review! Constructive criticism is always appreciated! I know this prologue is basically just game script, but it's my starting point, and good background for those who missed the base conversation. One of the funniest in the game, in my humble opinion.

**Currently Listening to:** Love for Sale- Bon Jovi

**Random Fact:** I'm rooting for the Cardinals in Super Bowl 43. Go Cards!

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**Prologue: Kitten Smitten  
**

The sun was finally starting to go down: even here on the border between Begnion and Gallia the humidity was horrid. How the sub-humans stood it, hairy as they were, Shinon would never know. The only thing for a beorc to do in heat like this was to find some shade and try not to move. There was one thing to be said for beast country: there was no shortage of trees. And yet, the sniper thought, suppressing a roll of his eyes, somehow Gatrie managed to find him. And, of course, the knight insisted on waxing poetic to his friend on every creature with two legs and breasts he had seen within the last week. The fool was incorrigible.

"...Oh, and this girl! You're going to think you're dreaming! She's as lovely as the dawn, I'm telling you!" This time Shinon did roll his eyes, tearing his gaze away from the beastfolk prowling around, preparing for the attack on Mugill once the sun went down. They hadn't been able to settle down since before Soren had revealed his strategy for taking the border fortress.

"All right, just show me already. Where is this sunrise with legs, anyway?" Gatrie's foolish, trusting face broke into an expression of astonished amusement.

"Wait, are you saying you're actually curious? I never thought I'd see the day."

"Well, we're gonna have to hang around these sub-humans for quite a while. A pretty face will help keep me sane." Shinon didn't see an orange-furred ear twitch back in his direction, but by then it was too late.

"Hey! You!" The sharp challenge surprised the sniper: when he looked again, an orange-haired laguz had planted herself right in front of him, arms akimbo and tail lashing back and forth like an angry snake. "You want to say that again?!" He snorted at the absurdity: the sub-human trying so hard to look tough barely came up to his chin. Gatrie's admiring sigh went unnoticed between the both of them. The red-haired mercenary smiled thinly: and he had just been starting to get bored, too.

"Hey, pussycat. You should've dropped by after dinner. I'm a generous man. I would've given you some table scraps." Shinon crossed his arms over his chest, standing straighter to emphasize the difference in their heights. Sub-humans were so proud of their strength…He enjoyed making them feel small. He was taller than most of them in any case, when he wasn't slouching.

The laguz bristled in a way that only a female and an angry cat could, her hands balling up and her teeth bared. Even in their beorc-like forms, the teeth of sub-humans were unnaturally sharp. "T-table scraps?! How dare you! You scum! Who do you think you are? I'm not going to forget that!"

"Aw, kitty wants to play?" Shinon's voice dripped with mockery and scorn as he uncrossed his arms. Just another sub-human looking for a fight… He wouldn't even need a weapon for this. His own hands, tough and well-calloused from his years of wielding bows, tightened into fists. "Sure, I've got some time to kill. Let's dance, hairball!"

The half-breed hissed with ears pinned back and eyes narrowed, a coat of fine hairs spreading over her neck and cheeks, the beginning of a laguz transformation. Shinon always found it unnerving, unnatural, how they changed, but he was good at hiding it. A calm head amid the chaos of the battlefield was crucial, and this was nothing in comparison. Not that these sub-humans seemed to understand that: midway between beast and human, the laguz crouched to spring. It was only a quick hand catching the ribbon tied around her neck that held her back.

"Stop! Don't make another move. " The cat laguz rounded on the one who had caught her, forgetting in her righteous indignation about the transformation, reverting to her more usual form.

"Kyza! You should hear the garbage he's saying!" One finger pointed accusingly back at Shinon. "He's the worst man I've ever met!"

He's a beorc, Lyre," the blue-furred laguz (was he a tiger? This half-breed was too broad to be a cat, but not quite as massive as tigers tended to be) reprimanded, as though the sniper's species required that he be given leniency, like a child that didn't understand what he was saying. He turned his gaze on Shinon, bowing his head politely. "Please accept my apology on behalf of my associate. Please, forgive her." Back to the cat sub-human, with a curt nod. "Now you, Lyre. Apologize to him." Again she bristled.

"What?! Why do I have to be the one to apologize?! That guy was the one who started it!"

Kyza lifted an eyebrow, grave and utterly serious. "Do you want me to report to Captain Ranulf that you couldn't control your temper and started a fight with a beorc?" That seemed to get through to her, if the quietly reserved 'no' that made up her reply was any indication. The orange-haired cat turned slowly to face Shinon, who made no attempt at all to look anything other than extremely smug and self-satisfied.

"I'm waiting... I'd forgive you if you apologized. I _am_ a nice guy, you know." The sniper lifted his eyebrows to emphasize a patronizing smile. The cat's eyes narrowed angrily.

"What?! Never! You're lucky I don't claw that smile off your face!" Whirling, she stormed off, too quickly for Kyza to grab anything other than empty air when he reached to catch her shoulder.

"Lyre!" The blue-furred half-breed heaved a long-suffering sigh. "I'm sorry... Maybe some other time. Excuse us." He turned to chase after her at a trot. Shinon watched the Gallian officer's retreating back with crossed arms and a certain amount of antipathy.

"Hmph, I hate it when sub-humans like him act all high and mighty, pretending to be just like us beorc. He's even worse than the other hairball." He shook his head crossly, irritation shifting to puzzlement when he heard Gatrie sigh. Truth be told, he had almost forgotten the knight during all the excitement.

"What, did all that stun you into silence?" The sniper turned toward his old friend, lifting a brow at the odd expression on the blond man's face. "You look like you've been hit in the head." Gatrie didn't seem to have heard, or if he did, he didn't care. Shinon's jibes never really seemed to upset the knight, and the sniper didn't know if it was because they went over his head or because he was just too easygoing.

"So, her name is Lyre. What a pretty name! Lyyyyyre..." Gatrie rolled the name around in his mouth as though he was tasting a new wine. Needless to say, that caught even Shinon off guard.

"What? Oh, come on! Don't tell me the girl you were talking about is that pussycat!"

Gatrie looked wounded by his friend's incredulity. "Don't mock me, Shinon! This is serious. I feel it. It's destiny! That girl and I are fated to be together!" As though to emphasize the fact, the knight pressed his palm dramatically to his heart… Or at least, to where his heart should be under all that armor. Shinon shook his head, somewhere between amusement and skepticism.

"You're chasing after a laguz now? Gatrie, I swear you'd hit on a tree if I dressed it in a skirt. Tell me I'm wrong!"

Gatrie never got the chance to deny the accusation. The sun had set and the call went up. It was time to move out.


	2. Chapter 1: The Price of Pride

**A/N:** Hey, people liked the prologue! That's unexpected. Getting all kinds of warm fuzzies over that. Well, here's to hoping that my own original work is up to par to what I can do with already-written scripts. Have at it, folks.

As always, reading and reviewing is love, and constructive criticism gets cookies. Oscar baked them, so you know they're good.

**Currently Listening to:** This is Trance- Paul Oakenfold

**Random Fact:** I've always wanted to learn how to hang glide…  
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**Chapter 1  
The Price of Pride**

The night guards were out, sleeping like babies. Soren's drugged food had done its work well. Shinon nudged one particularly loud snorer with the side of his boot with a derisive grunt. The man's head lolled in his helmet. Fools, to trust someone in the streets at this hour, and while they were under siege, too. Begnion's militias had grown soft in the peace since the Mad King's War, the sniper decided. Or maybe they were all just that stupid. He nodded to himself: that seemed the more likely explanation.

The Greil Mercenaries and a few sub-humans had managed to get in through a small gate around the side of the fortress, probably more used to having farmers on their way to their fields outside the walls pass through than a force of mercenaries and beastfolk. There had been two guards up on the ramparts: Shinon and Rolf had taken them out at almost the same moment, with none of the guards the wiser. He would never say it, but Shinon was proud of his student: the youngest of the three brothers was shaping up to be a fine archer indeed, even if the boy did tend to get too nervous in tight situations. He hadn't been able to settle down while Mist and her two half-breed helpers were inside, distributing the drugged food: Shinon had to remind him to stop fidgeting with his bowstring, else it could break when he next tried to fire it.

Soren insisted on reiterating his plan once more, as though it was his saying it enough times, and not the Greil Mercenaries themselves, that would make it work. It was a simple enough scheme: take out those guards that remained quickly, and open the gates to let in a flood of sub-humans with that idiot Skrimir roaring his challenges leading them. For a moment, the sniper almost pitied the people of Mugill for their fate, knowing that their supposed "safe haven" would soon be overrun with hairy, stinking beasts. Almost.

The gate was just in sight when the alarm went up. A new shift of soldiers had come to relieve their comrades, but they were unlucky enough to encounter the mercenaries instead. Shinon could hear many of them, bawling on about sub-humans in the city. The only laguz in their group, a pair of cats (fatefully, the hairball from earlier that had caught Gatrie's eye and another that he recognized from the Mad King's War), patrolled the rear, guarding their backs and hidden by the beorc in front of them. The sniper cursed quietly, nocking an arrow. Drawing back on his bowstring, he targeted one especially edgy-looking soldier still going on about sub-humans. "I'm no stinking half-breed," Shinon muttered. The bow twanged, an almost musical counterpoint to the soldier's brief scream as he fell, an arrow buried in his throat.

Lyre's ears twitched back from the Begnion soldier she and her sister, Lethe, had managed to fell together under the combined strength of their claws. She paused to glare over her shoulder, venom in her gaze, but Shinon hadn't waited around to make sure he had hit his target: he had enough confidence in his skill that it would take an act of the goddess for him to miss at that distance. He had moved on, backing up Gatrie while the knight's bulk and heavy lance and shield held back a steady stream of attackers trying to sneak around to the back of the main force through a passage in their defenses. The sniper dodged an enemy arrow, returned one of his own over Gatrie's shoulder and was rewarded with another cry as he hit his mark. Grudgingly, Lyre admitted to herself that he was good…for a stupid, racist human, anyway. Even so, she resented the fact: Laguz were supposed to be superior in battle, not dependent on metal weapons or armor for their victories. The cat pinned her ears back, hissing a challenge in Shinon's direction, even though she knew (with a certain amount of satisfaction) that his weak Beorc hearing probably wouldn't be able to pick it out from among the tumult of battle. Pussycat, he had dared to call her. Table scraps, he'd said. Well, she'd show--

A painful yowl set the fur of Lyre's back on end. She whirled around, slitted cat-eyes wide in surprise and fear just in time to see a halberdier withdrawing his spear. Lethe staggered, her shoulder and upper back laid open by the thrust, and was forced to revert from her cat form. The soldier raised his weapon for a final blow. With an angry howl, Lyre leapt with claws extended for the Beorc, but somehow the soldier countered, raising the haft of his spear between the two of them. The Laguz's sharp teeth bit deep into the wood. Lyre didn't even notice when the force of her attack drove splinters into her tongue: all she saw was the human before her, and her sister's blood on the head of his spear, and her rear claws raking uselessly over his metal armor. She snarled around the impediment in her mouth, reaching to try and slash at the halberdier's visible face with her front claws over his spearhaft.

With a snarl of his own, the enemy soldier bodily lifted his spear and the raging cat that refused to let go and tried to fling her away to the side. The sudden, surprising movement loosened Lyre's grip on the weapon: it was only her natural reflexes that had her sliding to a stop on all four paws. Beorc and Laguz faced each other down for a single moment that passed like half an eternity. Reason went out the window. A low snarling growl rose from Lyre's throat, rising to a wildcat's scream as she crouched and leapt.

Shinon's arm strained against the tension of his bowstring, drawing back another arrow when the sound pulled his gaze over. An instant was all it took to take in the situation: someone was down and bleeding heavily, the Begnion soldier responsible nearby with his back turned to the sniper. Rhys rushed toward the wounded with his staff at the ready, once almost tripping over the hem of his robes. The halberdier raised his weapon; no time, no time to think. Rhys couldn't stand up to much abuse from an armored soldier, especially when he was focusing on healing. Shinon turned, inhaled sharply, sighting down the shaft of his arrow: there was a tiny gap between his target's helmet and cuirass, his only chance. No thoughts crossed his mind. His heartbeat drummed in his ears. The air sang as he released his grip.

Lyre stretched her claws for the Beorc's face and throat, her teeth bared. A trickle of blood from her wounded tongue dribbled fearsomely over the cream-colored fur of her chin. The weapon leveled for her chest didn't matter, and in her blood-fueled rage the Laguz didn't notice when the spear sagged, piercing through the air below her leap instead of through her own fur and flesh. The cat landed heavily on the halberdier's chest…But the Beorc was already dead, a white-fletched arrow, broken in half by the weight of the falling corpse, buried just at the base of his nerveless skull. Her head jerked up in astonishment, locking her eyes with Shinon's for a moment. The sniper's gaze was level and emotionless, and after a breath's time had passed it turned away, scanning the battle scene. Mugill's remaining forces had been wiped out to a man: Ike paused for a moment to clean some of the blood from his sword before moving toward the gate controls, calling for Gatrie and Boyd to help him with the levers. Shinon reached up to wipe a mixture of sweat and blood- some his own, from a stray throwing axe that would have ended a slower man's life, and some of his opponents'- from his forehead with the back of his arm.

"Please, hold on," a gentle voice pulled Lyre's attention away. The orange-haired priest- she had heard someone call him Rhys- knelt next to her sister, a healing staff in his hands. The cat turned and bounded away toward Lethe, reverting to her Beorc-like form as she did. Lyre forced herself to control her emotions, although it was difficult now that she saw the wound closely and knew it was her fault. Lethe had lost a lot of blood. If only she hadn't been so distracted…Lyre pushed the guilt away for the moment and helped her sister to sit up while the Beorc whispered his prayer to Ashera, the orb of his staff glowing a soothing blue-white.

"Lethe, I'm sorry," Lyre whispered, though she doubted that her sister understood her. She had never seen Lethe, the soldier, the stronger sister, look so pale or tired. Even her tail hung limp, fur a little matted with blood. A few heartbeats passed, and slowly the glowing of Rhys' staff faded. The Beorc sighed. He looked rather haggard himself, Lyre thought, though she still had some difficulty reading Beorc facial expressions.

"She should be alright now…She just needs to rest for awhile." Rhys passed a trembling hand over his face and stood. So much blood had already been shed, and he was still needed. Some of the mercenaries had sustained wounds that would be better if healed by him than by time alone. He hoped that Mist still had some energy left to help him. Time was something that they always seemed to be short of.

Lyre helped Lethe to stand with her sister's arm slung over her shoulders, moving against the first of the hoard of Gallian Laguz making their way into the fortress. Slowly they made progress back toward the camp outside the walls and to Lethe's tent. Lyre looked almost the whole time for the red-haired human…red-haired Beorc…who had, she realized, saved both her and her sister's lives, but with no luck. Amidst the crush of Laguz and fleeing Begnion citizens in the half-light of early dawn, Shinon was nowhere to be seen.


End file.
